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NASA Study Reveals Our Solar System Is Surrounded By A Massive Spherical ‘Shield’

Data from NASA’s Cassini, Voyager and IBEX
missions suggest that the solar system is surrounded by a MASSIVE, SPHERICAL
shaped magnetic field. In the past, experts thought that the heliosphere was in
fact a comet-shaped structure, with a rounded head and an extended tail. But
new data covering an entire 11-year cycle of solar activity shows that this may
not be the case.

This wind creates something that can be
explained as a bubble, some 37 million kilometers wide, called the heliosphere.
Our entire solar system, including the H, moves through interstellar space.
Just as Earth orbits the Sun, our Sun orbits the galactic center –which from
our vantage point is located around 25,00 light years— in an elliptic orbit. It
completes a revolution every 225 million years approximately—called a Galactic
year.

Anyway, getting back on track, this new
discovery calls into question the alternate view of the solar magnetic fields
trailing behind the sun in the shape of a long comet tail—almost like a kite.

Until now, scientists thought that the
heliosphere was in fact a comet-shaped structure, with a rounded head and an
extended tail. But new data covering an entire 11-year cycle of solar activity
shows that this may not be the case: the heliosphere is most likely rounded at
both ends, making its shape almost spherical.

“Instead of a prolonged, comet-like tail, this
rough bubble-shape of the heliosphere is due to the strong interstellar
magnetic field—much stronger than what was anticipated in the past—combined
with the fact that the ratio between particle pressure and magnetic pressure
inside the heliosheath is high,” says Kostas Dialynas of the Academy of Athens
in Greece, lead author of the study. Interestingly, Cassini—which has explored
Saturn for over a decade—using its Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument discovered
surprising new data about the shape of the heliosphere’s trailing end, the
heliotail.

“Our Cassini instrument was designed to image
the ions that are trapped in the magnetosphere of Saturn,” says coauthor Tom
Krimigis, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, an instrument lead
on the Cassini and Voyager missions. “We never thought that we would see what
we’re seeing and be able to image the boundaries of the heliosphere.”

Since these particles move only at a small
fraction of the speed of light, their trip from the sun to the edge of the
heliosphere and back takes quite a lot. Now, when the number of particles
coming from the sun changes, it takes years before that is reflected in the
amount of natural atoms shooting back into the solar system. As Cassini was
orbiting Saturn, its instruments measured the neutral atoms revealed surprising
details—the particles coming from the ‘tail’ of our solar system’s heliosphere
reflect the changes in the solar cycle almost exactly as fast as those coming
from the nose of the heliosphere.

“If the heliosphere’s ‘tail’ is stretched out
like a comet, we’d expect that the patterns of the solar cycle would show up
much later in the measured neutral atoms,” said Krimigis.

What does this mean? Well, since patterns of
solar activity show just as quickly on one side of the heliosphere as the
other, it implies that the tail of the heliosphere is around the same distance
from us as the nose. In other words, the comet-like tail that scientists
thought existed previously may not be there at all, as the heliosphere that
wraps the solar system is nearly round.

Scientists note that a spherical heliosphere
may exist due to a number of reasons. First of all, data gathered by the
voyager 1 probe shows that the interstellar magnetic field beyond the
heliosphere is much stronger than scientists had expected.

“This data that Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini and
IBEX provide to the scientific community is a windfall for studying the far
reaches of the solar wind,” says Arik Posner, NASA’s Voyager and IBEX program
scientist. “As we continue to gather data from the edges of the heliosphere,
this data will help us better understand the interstellar boundary that the
heliosphere, this data will help us better understand the interstellar boundary
that helps shield the Earth environment from harmful cosmic rays.”

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